How Prepared Is Your Bank for an Appraisal Compliance Audit?Mitch Kreeger, MAI SRA MBA, Chief Appraiser and Principal Consultant, Kreeger ConsultingCommercial real estate markets continue their slow recovery. As demand for loans intensifies, regulatory compliance is top of mind for financial institutions. Bank regulators are exercising strict oversight over all types of bank underwriting, including commercial appraisals. This webinar will address head-on the challenges that institutions face in meeting the latest guidance impacting the appraisal function, and what risk managers can and should be doing to survive an appraisal compliance audit.

Attendees will receive answers to these important questions:

• What do current guidance/regulations require of banks related to appraisals and how has that changed?
• What specific things are bank examiners looking for in an appraisal compliance audit?
• Are you doing everything you can to prepare your institution for the scrutiny of examiners before an audit? During an audit? After an audit?
• What are the latest best practices that banks should include today in their appraisal policies to protect themselves during this stage of market recovery?

Exposure to professional liability ranks high on the list of any environmental professional’s concerns. In this webinar, industry veteran Anthony Buonicore will present five carefully-selected case studies where an EP was sued, highlighting how costly litigation could have been avoided. Attendees of this webinar will come away with steps that can be taken to minimize professional liability exposure when:

• Submitting a Phase I ESA proposal
• Conducting a Phase I ESA
• Writing the Phase I ESA report

To help property assessment professionals meet the challenge of staying up to speed on the forces driving demand for their services, EDR Insight invites you to a complimentary web event on the state of the market in the fourth quarter of 2014—and a look to how the 2015 forecast is taking shape. Attendees of this 60-minute webinar will learn:

• The status of commercial property transactions and the asset classes attracting the most attention
• Commercial real estate lending volume
• Key players in the deal-making and lending worlds
• How attitudes toward risk are changing
• Where to focus business development efforts for 2015
• EDR Insight’s near-term forecast for environmental due diligence

Join us for a look at the forces driving demand for your services so that you can better position your firm for growth in the new year.

With risk management in the spotlight, environmental risk management policies are more important than ever. Environmental insurance options have evolved to offer lenders proven ways to manage risk as commercial loan originations increase in the second act of market recovery. Join us for this webinar as seasoned insiders share their insight into how insurance policies can effectively manage risk exposure. Attendees will also learn how environmental insurance can be applied to lending practices based on real world examples of claims scenarios.

Benefits to attendees:
• Background on the latest tools available to help lenders protect collateral on real estate loans or investments.
• The know-how to avoid an embarrassing loss on loan portfolios due to environmental issues.
• The latest intel on how lender environmental insurance can help lenders make more loans.

Vapor migration is part of the new Phase I environmental site assessment protocol from ASTM, E 1527-13. In December, the US Environmental Protection Agency blessed the new standard as compliant with the federal All Appropriate Inquiries rule, emphasizing the importance of assessing vapor migration risk as a standard part of Phase I ESAs. US EPA went even further in the December preamble and stated that vapor migration has always been a part of conducting AAI. In light of US EPA’s statements and the emphasis that assessing vapor migration is current standard practice for AAI-compliant Phase I ESAs, how is vapor being addressed in the field? If a Phase I ESA report identifies vapor migration as a Recognized Environmental Condition, or REC, what next? In today’s market of intensely short turnaround times for property transactions, is a vapor migration issue a deal killer? What are the current tools and options to investigate a vapor migration REC under transactional time constraints? When should a buyer walk away from a site potentially impacted by vapor migration? When to mitigate? How are environmental due diligence firms establishing consistent processes for recommending “next steps” for clients when vapor migration issues arise?

This timely webinar will bring together an attorney and two leading technical experts to address head-on the various avenues that firms are taking to assist end users of Phase I ESA reports on how to address vapor migration risk during the deal making process.

Regulatory pressures are fundamentally impacting the way that financial institutions manage the appraisal function. Our speakers will tackle the most impactful issues for both lenders and appraisals today. An expert from the Appraisal Institute, the largest appraisal membership society in the world with 23,000+ real estate valuation experts worldwide, will share first-hand research into the challenges faced by appraisers and by lenders that rely on the technical expertise of appraisal services. Attendees will learn about the concerns commercial real estate appraisers face, and the challenges their lender clients face in finding quality appraisers to help them respond to new policies and requirements. Speakers will also share insight into the latest policies from bank regulators like the OCC and FDIC that are impacting the integration of appraisals and environmental risk management. An expert in the trenches of a small community bank will share his insights into the shifting alignment of appraisals and environmental risk management at the community bank level, the importance of having a sound policy in place and actions that banks can take to best prepare for the scrutiny of examiners.

BENEFITS TO AUDIENCE:
- Information on how appraisers can meet today’s top challenges, align their services with the challenges lender clients face
- A deeper understanding of bank regulations impacting appraisals
- An insider’s take on what bank examiners look for
- Advice on steps banks can take to protect themselves against examiner scrutiny
- A look into the forces that are bringing appraisals and environmental due diligence functions closer together

With scrutiny on lenders’ risk management policies intensifying, more and more community banks are writing their first policies or updating old ones. The OCC just raised the bar for the banks it regulates with the August release of expanded guidelines for environmental risk management that bring their policy requirements in line with those of the FDIC. What are the critical components that should be in every policy? What elements are common to most institution’s policies? How does your institution measure up to industry best practices? How is policy administered across organizations?

Join us for this webinar as seasoned insiders selected from the ranks of a mid-sized bank and small community lender share their experiences in writing and updating environmental policies. Learn what these experts are doing to protect their institutions from environmental risk exposure, and the dangers that lenders face by not having adequate policies in place to protect them from financial and legal liability.

Do you have more questions than answers about the industry’s transition over to a new ASTM Phase I ESA protocol? You’re not alone.

On August 15, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a Direct Final Rule which proposes to reference the E 1527-13 standard as compliant with the agency’s All Appropriate Inquiries rule (40 CFR Part 312). The agency’s 30-day public comment period just closed and the ASTM standard moves one step closer to publication.

Right now the #1 question in the industry is: When will ASTM E 1527-13 take effect?

At this webinar, two of the experts closest to the ASTM process will share the latest status of the AAI rule amendment and publication of the new Phase I ESA standard.

There are a number of moving pieces in play right now. Tune into this event to learn the latest on the ASTM front, the hot-button issues raised during the public comment period, what happens to E 1527-05 and more. It is an important time for the industry as it prepares to put a new standard into effect and this event will help keep environmental professionals abreast of the process as it unfolds.

Change is in the air on the vapor intrusion front. Literally and figuratively. On April 16, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft document, the OSWER Final Guidance For Assessing And Mitigating The Vapor Intrusion Pathway From Subsurface Sources To Indoor Air — External Review Draft for public comment. The release of EPA’s guidance comes just months before ASTM is poised to release a revised version of E 1527 that adds definitions of migrate/migration to address the vapor pathway as a potential conduit for contamination.

As attention being placed on vapor risk increases, environmental professionals need to stay abreast of the changes and their implications. With the long-awaited federal guidance now out for public comment, environmental due diligence professionals, lenders, as well as prospective purchasers of properties like drycleaners, gas stations, and other types of properties impacted by petroleum or solvents have a valuable resource for understanding VI risk, assessing it and ultimately, managing it as appropriate for their own risk tolerance. Join us at this webinar to hear the perspectives of three experts on:

• The implications of the federal vapor guidance and an insiders’ unique take on hot button issues;
• How one environmental professional talks to his clients about vapor risk and protects their liability exposure; and
• How vapor risk is being mitigated and managed in today’s deals.

For lenders operating in the shadow of the Dodd-Frank Act, CFPB and other regulatory enforcement agencies are focusing their efforts on consumer protection, disclosure and transparency and deem these critical to all areas of an institution’s compliance and operation. A dizzying array of new rules and regulations, often disruptive to existing operations, are raining down upon the mortgage lending industry. Now, however, it’s not enough to simply be aware of emerging rules and regulations. Little known requirements and regulations which have been on the books for years without being enforced are now getting renewed attention from those agencies, likely opening up an entirely new front in the uphill battle to stay compliant. One of the greatest potential risks to lenders arises from requirements for residential property appraisals and evaluations. It is likely we will see stricter environmental underwriting and more regulatory scrutiny on lenders’ risk management policies. Discover now where lenders are most at risk, and learn about cost-effective measures that can be taken to stay out of the regulatory crosshairs.

The presenters will:

• Identify existing rules and regulations, little-known and long unenforced, that are likely to be revitalized by regulatory enforcers;
• Spell out the specific risks that residential property contamination, including vapor mitigation, will pose to a mortgage lender;
• Explain how the gamut of new and existing requirements will impact traditional due diligence requirements; and
• Predict the possible financial impact upon lenders, as well as offering potential solutions for risk mitigation.

For the first time since 2005, the ASTM E1527 standard has been revised. ASTM submitted the final version to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for formal approval of the revised ASTM E 1527 standard as “AAI-compliant.” According to industry insiders, this approval could come as early as this summer. Once the approval process is successfully completed, the E 1527-13 standard would be published by ASTM and take effect immediately upon publication. With the summer only a few months away, now is the time to start thinking about what you can be doing to prepare.

The EDR team has been tracking the revision process closely since it began in 2010. Over the past fall/winter season, we educated over 1,000 environmental professionals at our Due Diligence at Dawn (DDD) seminars around the country.

Join EDR and Anthony J. Buonicore, former E1527 Task Group leader, for this webinar and learn what you need to know to comply with the upcoming revisions.